The audience seated in the basement of Bethany Lutheran Church in south Minneapolis on Tuesday night was mostly Somali immigrants, mostly scared but determined.
They came to learn more about President Donald Trump's executive order on refugees and immigrants from seven mostly Muslim countries. Their questions concerned their fathers, mothers, friends and community and, sometimes, themselves.
"Why did they not let my dad come to the United States?" one person wrote on a blank notecard. "Is the ban constitutional?" wrote another.
Jaylani Hussein, executive director of CAIR Minnesota, which is headquartered at the church, said his organization, as well as immigration attorneys and the ACLU, "have been completely overwhelmed" in the days since the president signed the order.
Teresa Nelson, legal director of the ACLU of Minnesota, advised immigrants already living in the United States to avoid international travel, at least for now.
She said there are teams of lawyers at airports around the country, including at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, to help those who are detained. But people who are stopped must insist on speaking with an attorney; the attorneys are not told by Customs and Border Patrol agents that someone needs them.
Nelson said she knows of no one who has been detained or deported in Minnesota. Several permanent residents have undergone extensive screening but have been allowed to leave.
She called the ban "baldfaced religious persecution."